Celebrating Europe Day 2024: A celebration of Europe and Democracy – 2024-05-12 07:20:52

Europe Day is this year dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the restoration of Democracy in Greece, with discussions and events in view of the upcoming European Elections and the presence of the Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Promotion of our European way of life, Mr. Margaritis Schinas , who will talk to young men and women in an open dialogue event, which will be moderated by Mr. Giorgos Pasparakis.

It will be a celebration with lots of activities! Among other things, visitors will have the opportunity to browse the stands of the services of the European Commission and European organizations operating in Greece, such as ENISA (European Union Agency for Cyber ​​Security), stands of embassies of Member States of the European Union (EU), state youth agencies, Europe DIRECT centers and NGOs and to attend the award ceremony of the distinguished works in the student painting competition “Above the Stars the Scene, the teenagers paint the Republic” of the Children’s Gallery of Greece.

The program includes an event of the Office of the European Parliament (EP) in Greece, with the participation of schools of EP ambassadors, with a discussion on “Democracy, Citizenship and Publishing through the path of journalism from print to the Internet”, with students who collaborated with the Student Newspapers of “Vima tis Kyriaki” for the special edition for Europe Day. The Student Newspapers of “Vima” have been honored in the context of the Education Leaders Awards and have been placed under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Religion and Sports.

Visitors will also be able to find out about important European policies and funding, government scholarships in Greece and other EU Member States and opportunities to participate in the ERASMUS+ programme, as well as a range of important social and environmental actions by civil society in Hellas:

• for road safety issues from the Panos Mylonas Road Safety Institute (European Citizen Award 2011),
• for health issues from Checkpoint, an NGO in the field of preventive medicine for sexually transmitted diseases, whose work has been praised by, among others, the European Parliament (European Citizen Award 2023),
• for issues of equality and combating discrimination against LGBTI+ people from Athens Pride (Athens Pride Festival),
• for wildlife protection actions by the Hellenic Ornithological Society, one of the most well-known and active NGOs, with a great contribution to the protection of wild birds and their habitats in Greece,
• for actions to protect the marine environment by Enalia, an NGO with distinctions from international organizations, with the main project marine cleaning and circular economy programs in order to make the marine ecosystem sustainable,
• for actions supporting children with disabilities from ELEPAP, the leading Greek NGO that helps children with disabilities (European Citizen Award 2021).

The program is completed with:

• the interactive workshop with volunteers of the International and European Affairs Group ODETH/Together.eu “I am becoming an active citizen!”
• knowledge games, interactive workshops and demonstrations from the Laboratory of Robotics, Automatic Control and Cyberphysical Systems (RCCL) of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,
• demonstrations by the Research University Institute of Communication & Computer Systems (ICCS) of the National Technical University of Athens,
• resume building activities from the Research and Training Institute for European Issues IRTEA,
• the interactive game for young and old “Geography is very cool” and
• with the team of “Glossonauts” and their activities.

DG ECFIN (European Commission), DG HOME (European Commission), DG REFORM (European Commission), the European Investment Bank, the Greece 2.0 Recovery Fund, Europe Direct Municipality are also participating in the celebration with their own stands and interactive activities Piraeus, Europe Direct Attica – PRAXI Network and Europe Direct ELIAMEP, the National Coordination Authority of NSRF, the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY) and the Youth and Lifelong Learning Foundation (INEDIVIM).

Finally, the embassies of the following Member States of the European Union participate: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Romania, Slovenia.

PRIDE FM producers and the Bugarabu percussion group will curate the music throughout the program.

Free entrance!

More information and detailed program here